The Jungle eBook

So Ona set out that day to hunt for work; and at night
Marija came home saying that she had met a girl named
Jasaityte who had a friend that worked in one of the
wrapping rooms in Brown’s, and might get a place
for Ona there; only the forelady was the kind that
takes presents—­it was no use for any one
to ask her for a place unless at the same time they
slipped a ten-dollar bill into her hand. Jurgis
was not in the least surprised at this now—­he
merely asked what the wages of the place would be.
So negotiations were opened, and after an interview
Ona came home and reported that the forelady seemed
to like her, and had said that, while she was not
sure, she thought she might be able to put her at
work sewing covers on hams, a job at which she would
earn as much as eight or ten dollars a week.
That was a bid, so Marija reported, after consulting
her friend; and then there was an anxious conference
at home. The work was done in one of the cellars,
and Jurgis did not want Ona to work in such a place;
but then it was easy work, and one could not have
everything. So in the end Ona, with a ten-dollar
bill burning a hole in her palm, had another interview
with the forelady.

Meantime Teta Elzbieta had taken Stanislovas to the
priest and gotten a certificate to the effect that
he was two years older than he was; and with it the
little boy now sallied forth to make his fortune in
the world. It chanced that Durham had just put
in a wonderful new lard machine, and when the special
policeman in front of the time station saw Stanislovas
and his document, he smiled to himself and told him
to go—­“Czia! Czia!” pointing.
And so Stanislovas went down a long stone corridor,
and up a flight of stairs, which took him into a room
lighted by electricity, with the new machines for
filling lard cans at work in it. The lard was
finished on the floor above, and it came in little
jets, like beautiful, wriggling, snow-white snakes
of unpleasant odor. There were several kinds
and sizes of jets, and after a certain precise quantity
had come out, each stopped automatically, and the wonderful
machine made a turn, and took the can under another
jet, and so on, until it was filled neatly to the
brim, and pressed tightly, and smoothed off.
To attend to all this and fill several hundred cans
of lard per hour, there were necessary two human creatures,
one of whom knew how to place an empty lard can on
a certain spot every few seconds, and the other of
whom knew how to take a full lard can off a certain
spot every few seconds and set it upon a tray.

And so, after little Stanislovas had stood gazing
timidly about him for a few minutes, a man approached
him, and asked what he wanted, to which Stanislovas
said, “Job.” Then the man said “How
old?” and Stanislovas answered, “Sixtin.”
Once or twice every year a state inspector would come
wandering through the packing plants, asking a child
here and there how old he was; and so the packers
were very careful to comply with the law, which cost